At the political level, these matters are officially handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which answers to the Prime Minister. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, since November 2008 is: Senator The Hon. Maxine McClean.

At times Barbados has found itself as a countervailing force to U.S. political and economic influence in the English-speaking Caribbean.

As a small nation, the primary thrust of Barbados' diplomatic activity has been within international organisations. Currently Barbados has established official diplomatic relations with 105 countries around the globe.

In 2002 the United Nations opened a building in the Marine Gardens area of Hastings found in the Parish of Christ Church the facility simply called the United Nations House acts as a regional operations headquarters for several programmes of the United Nations in Barbados and for many of the other islands in the Eastern Caribbean region.[3]

Currently the Barbadian Government does not have foreign accreditation for Nigeria. However the Nigerian Government has said that it was highly desirous of Barbados establishing an embassy directly to Nigeria.[9] Barbados and Nigeria formally established diplomatic relations on 24 April 1970.[10]

Nigeria has pushed for more investment from Barbadian companies and investors and the pursuance of direct flights between both nations.[11][12]

Barbados was one of the first nations in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) bloc to form relations with the Republic of Cuba in 1972. In recent years Cuba has offered offered scholarships to students in Barbados to attend its medical schools such as Escuela Latin Americana de Medicina.

The relations between Guyana and Barbados had its genesis to a time when both Guyana (then British Guiana) and Barbados were both British colonies. Shortly after Great Britain secured British Guiana from the Dutch, waves of migrants were encouraged to move and settle in Guyana. Barbados was one such location where large numbers of migrants came from. Through time Barbados and Guyana have both supported each other. With the move towards independence in the region Guyana was seen as the breadbasket of the wider Caribbean which led to yet more waves of Barbadians seeking to move to Guyana for better opportunities.

More recently the Guyanese Government has extended an offer to Barbadians.[18][19] The Guyanese government has offered to put in place an economically favourable regime towards any Barbadians that wish to relocate to Guyana and contribute towards that nation's goals in agricultural investment.[20] The announcement was made in the final days of the Owen Arthur administration by MP member Mia Motley.

In the early 1990s as a member of CARICOM, Barbados had supported efforts by the United States to implement UN Security Council Resolution 940, designed to facilitate the departure of Haiti's de facto authorities from power. The country agreed to contribute personnel to the multinational force, which restored the democratically elected government of Haiti in October 1994.

Both countries established diplomatic relations on 8 March 1978. Barbados is accredited to Suriname from Bridgetown. Suriname is represented in Barbados through its embassy in Port of Spain, (Trinidad and Tobago).

On April 11, 2006, the 5-Member UNCLOS Annex VII Arbitral Tribunal, presided over by H.E. Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, rendered after two years of international judicial proceedings, the landmark Barbados/Trinidad and Tobago Award, which resolved the maritime boundarydelimitation (in the East, Central and West sectors) to satisfaction of both Parties and committed Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago to resolve their fisheries dispute by means of concluding a new Fisheries Agreement.

In May 1997, Prime Minister Owen Arthur hosted United States PresidentBill Clinton and 14 other Caribbean leaders during the first-ever U.S.-regional summit in Bridgetown, Barbados. The summit strengthened the basis for regional cooperation on justice and counternarcotics issues, finance and development, and trade.

India and Barbados established diplomatic relations on 30 November 1966 (the date of Barbados' national independence).[22] On that date, the government of India gifted Barbados the throne in Barbados' national House of Assembly.[23] India is represented in Barbados through its embassy in Suriname[24][25][26] and an Indian consulate in Holetown, St. James.[27] Today around 3,000 persons from India call Barbados home. Two-thirds are from the India's Surat district of Gujarat known as Suratis. Most of the Suratis are involved in trading. The rest are mainly Sindhis.

Barbados is represented in Germany through its embassy in Brussels, (Belgium) and Germany is represented in to Barbados from its embassy in Port of Spain, (Trinidad and Tobago). Barbados and Germany formally established diplomatic relations on 14 March 1967.

The Russian Federation and Barbados established formal diplomatic relations on January 29, 1993.[35][36] In 2018 both nations celebrated 25 years of diplomatic ties and pledged closer collaboration.[37][38][39] The two nations also discussed cultural exchanges and Russia working with Barbados' light oil and gas industry.[40][41] And possible scholarships to Russian schools.[42]

Barbados has been a member state of the Commonwealth since independence in 1966. Barbadians have held various roles within the Commonwealth of Nations such as elections observers, or even more prominently, the former Governor-General, Dame Nita Barrow who served on the original Eminent Persons Group of 1985-1986 which researched ways to bring about an end of apartheid in South Africa.[55]

The late Prime Minister Errol Walton Barrow gave a speech during the first General Assembly attended by Barbados: Telling the assembly that his country will be an exponent, "not of the diplomacy of power, but of the diplomacy of peace and prosperity. We have no quarrels to pursue and we particularly insist that we do not regard any member state as our natural opponent," he said. "We will be friends of all, satellites of none."